Any fleeting thoughts I had about arm designs, among other things, are quickly dashed away as I take in the abysmal lack of progress that’s happened before me. Doing some quick math with a few estimations, I’ve found that we have gotten a significant percentage worse.

 

Looking around at the many exhausted pokémon, it finally dawns on me that this training isn’t helping anyone. “Clembot, recall and standby.” With that, all  of Clembot’s pokémon return to their balls, and he goes to stand in his usual position awaiting challengers.

 

Courtney bounces up to me. Her face is devoid of emotion, but I can spot a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “I’m assuming you’re unhappy with your work.”

 

“Dissatisfied would be more apt,” I mutter. I stroke my chin, muttering various ideas and the downsides to each.

 

I see Courtney slightly frown. “You seem like you don’t really know what you’re doing.”

 

I roll my eyes. “Not particularly. I worked at a pokémon lab as essentially IT support. I played with the pokémon sometimes, but I was never any official handler for any of them. I was an unofficial handler for Robin and Hazel, but that’s simply because they liked hanging out in my dungeon of a workspace.”

 

I let out a breathy sigh, feeling the weight of the future press on my chest. Looking down with a thousand-yard stare, I mutter, “Schemes and loopholes can only get me so far in the League challenge. I learned that with Korrina. I need actual skill to advance.”

 

“Hmm,” Courtney hums. “Well, you should start with basics. Do stuff like a how normal person trains: lift weights, run some, stretch. All of that stuff. Battle experience against another with you commanding them helps them learn how to emulate your battling style. Then they won’t need you to micromanage them as much.”

 

She pauses as she turns her head to look at all of the panting pokémon. “Let them rest for now. You have some good ideas, some bad. Frankly, you’re better at inventing than training. Maybe combine the two?”

 

I feel slightly insulted at that comment, but it’s not wholly undeserving either. By all means, I’m likely one of the worst trainers the league has ever had to deal with. Banned from multiple gyms, traveling with a known international former criminal, probably on several government watchlists that I can’t find, and more!

 

I give a grunt of affirmation. “Okay, I’ll work on something. I still don’t know what to do about Primrose though.”

 

She narrows her eyes. “That’s…the Feebas, right?”

 

I nod. “Yeah, as she is, she can only learn Tackle as a real move. I promised to help her get stronger, and the current easiest way to do that would be to somehow find a Prism Scale.”

 

Courtney’s face puckers like she bit into a sitrus berry. “I…have an acquaintance, well, acquaintance is a strong word. But, I do know someone who might have a Prism Scale.”

 

I raise an eyebrow. “Acquaintance is strong? Who are they?”

“Uhh…” She looks to the side, scrunching into herself, tapping her index fingers together. “Former rival, I guess?”

 

Fully turning, I stare down at her… I just realized that, even normally, I stand taller than most people I know without the use of the Octillery Arms…huh. Anyway, I continue looking down, hoping to peer into her mind with the power of speculation. “Would it happen to be that this person is from Team Aqua?”

 

A slight nod.

 

“Would it just so happen to be Shelly?”

 

Another nod.

 

I heave a sigh, resting my hand on my forehead. “Okay, if you’re fine with it. It’s not like associated with another criminal will make my record any worse.” Looking at the still exhausted pokémon really drives home the point that most of them have terrible stamina from growing up in domestic environments. Unfortunately, I’m not of the mind to deal with that issue right now, so I’ll busy myself with other work.

 

“I’m going to use Clemont’s workshop for a while. Can you watch over them for a bit?” I jerk a thumb at my many pokémon.

 

Courtney silently nods.

 

———————————————————————————————————————

 

I’ve been thinking about this one for a while. I’ve also been putting it off for a while. Essentially, I need a new arm.

 

Now, the Octillery Arms were a lot easier to make. I didn’t have size constraints, resources constraints, nor did I have to make it emulate an existing limb. They sort of became a new limb that I’m subconsciously aware of.

 

The main thing in that list was size constraint. I want my new arm to match the dimensions of my old arm as best as possible. This disallows me from using my usual tactile sensors that the Octillery Arms have because they’re energy inefficient and the size of my palm. So, I can put one of the regular ones in the palm, but I’ll have to use lesser ones for the finger pads.

 

Since I have slender fingers, I can barely fit other stuff in here. I just manage to fit wiring in. One day, if I ever manage to create the dream technology of so many science fields of nanotechnology, I’m sure a lot of these problems could simply be whisked away.

 

The length of the arm is thicker than the fingers, so I can fit more goodies in here. I put in some stronger motors to push heavier objects. I can’t lift heavier objects without the Octillery Arms for support since that would likely rip the arm out. I also put on some heavier armor since this’ll be taking the most environmental damage.

 

However, the AI I’ve trained for this has some great benefits. First, I made it adaptable to several types of inputs. So, I can theoretically switch out what’s at my wrist for different tools. Second, it’s modeled after the inputs from my spine to not only my left hand, but also my right. The merging of this data should allow me to use my left hand as easily as my right hand.

 

At the end of it all, I’m left with a gunmetal gray arm with a lot of metal plating and only a few exposed rainbow wires. A sizable chunk of crystal serves as the battery and a port is near the shoulder for charging. It also allows for interfacing with the Octillery Arms’ battery.

 

Hmm, maybe I can use crystals to train my pokémon?

Ehh, I’ll figure that out later. Now, I need to figure out how to attach this to my stump…

 

Clemont has anesthesia of some kind around here, right?